Rigging and spars oe ships and other navigable vessels



' UNTTED sTATEs PATENT onirica BARTON RICKETSON, OF NEW BEDFORD,MASSACHUSETTS.

RIG-GING AND SPARS 0F SHIPS AND OTHER NAVIGABLE VESSELS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 36,482, dated September 16, 1862.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BARTON RioKETsoN, of New Bedford, in the county ofBristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in the Rig and Spars of Ships and other Vessels; and I dohereby declare that the following is a full,'clear, and eXactdescriptionof the same, reference being had to the accompany ing drawing, formingpart of this specifica* tion.

The principal objects of this invention are to reduce the cost of therig, spars and sails of vessels, by a. simpler construction andarrangement of parts, to obtain increased speed by providing for thecarrying of a greater area of sail without injuriously straining eitherthe spars or the hull, and to facilitate the working of the sails andthereby enable a vessel of a given tonnage to be worked by fewer hands.

In carrying out my invention I fit the yards around the mast in suchmanner that their axes intersect the aXis of the mast, and

make one arm of each longer than the other,

so that it may carry av larger area of sail on one side than on theother, the po-rtion of the sail on one side of, or abaft the mast, beingseparate from the portion on the other side or forward of it. The sailsand yards thus applied partake in-some degree of the character of whatare known as square, and in some degree of the character of what areknown as Ifore and aft sails, and the yards are worked and secured inposition by braces in substantially the same manner as the yards andbooms of other vessels. I employ in a vessel one, two, or more mastsaccording to its size, or as, all circumstances considered, may be mostdesirable, and employ on each mast the usual or any suitable number ofyards, generally preferring to employ as small a number as practical, asmy object is to reduce the height of the masts and sails as much aspossible, and compensate for such reduction by an increased width ofsail the arrangement allowing a greater width to be used without thoseof one mast taking the wind from those of any other, and I proposegenerally to dispense with the use of jibs and iying-jibs and theirbooms, and in some cases with the bowsprit also. Thegeneral form andarrangement of the yards and sails which I employ is illustrated inblack outline in Figures l and 2 ofthe drawing, representing a ship anda sloop, and a comparison of the said form and arrangement with theusual systems is illustrated in the said figures, by the represent-ationof those systems in red outline.

The first part of my invention relates to the construction of yards tofit around, and turn upon the mast, whereby great facility is affordedfor the attachment of such yards to their mast, and their detachmenttherefrom is illustrated in Figs. 3 and t of the drawing, the latterexhibiting a top view of a yard and horizontal section of the mast, andthe former a side view of part of the hull of a ship with the forema-stand its yards and sails and the principal portion of the rigging. Thetwo arms a, a, of the yard are made of separate pieces of timber, or'ifmade of one piece are sawn apart, and they 'are connected at their sideswith strong cheek pieces Z), I), which hold them at the proper dist-anceapart, and between which and the inner ends of the arms there is formedan opening of suitable size for the reception of the mast E, the innerfaces Yof the said cheek pieces being hollowed out to make the saidopenings nearly circular. said cheek pieces are so secured to the yardarms by bolts c, c, and nuts CZ, d, as. to provide for the removal ofone of themgwithout disturbing the other one, which always keeps the twoarms rigidly connected, and when the yard is to be applied to the mastthe movable cheek-piece is taken olf and the yardk put on the mastside-ways and after the yard has been so lput on, the movablecheek'piece is again applied to the yard and secured in place by thenuts CZ, d.' By this construction of yards fitted around and turningupon their mast, either one can be removed without removing ordisturbing.4

those above it. These cheek-pieces maybe made wide enough and longenough to give great strength to the yard and I propose to usein'connection with them wrought iron arched tension rods g, tostrengthen the yard vertically, as shown in the lower yard A in Fig. l,running the said rods through standards 71 h, secured linthe yard. Ipropose to use in connection with such yards a mast made all in onelength, instead of lower mast, top mast and top gallant mast insepa-rate lengths, and to provide shoulders 1^, fr', all around them atproper lengths for the lower yard A and top-sail yard B to rest upon.These shoulders may be formed by reducing the size of the mast at theplaces where the yards are to come as shown in Fig. 8, which is anelevation of the mast. I make one arm of each yard longer than the otherand by that means I am enabled to tack better as the sails are then madeto operate like fore and aft sails, or when at anchor and getting underway can place them so as to cause the ship to lill on the right tackalmost to a certainty and prevent missing stays or filling on the wrongtack.

The two upper yards C and D represented in Fig. 3 as arranged to slidedown the upper portion of the mast, so that both may, with their sails,be lowered down to the topsail yards B when it is desirable to take inthese sails, and it is in thus providing Jfor the sliding down the mastof yards which lit around it to turn upon it that the second part of myinvention consists. I propose to apply in this way in large vessels anynumber of the upper yards as those of the top-gallant sails and royalsand any sails that may be used above the royals, but in small vesselsall yards may be applied in this way to be lowered. c, c, are the topgallant sail halyards and f, f, the royalV halyards applied in the samemanner as' the halyards of yards are applied inthe ordinary rig ofvessels.

The third part of my invention consists in an improved jackstay. This isillus trated in Fig. 5 which is a longitudinal vertical section of onearm of a yard, in Fig.`

6, which is a top view of the same, and 1n Fig. 7 which is a transversesection of the same; Z is a fixed cleat secured longitudinally on thetop of the yard and extending the whole length of the arm and hollowcdout on its inner side for the reception of one side of the bolt-rope y',of the sail. Opposite to this cleat, there are secured to the yard atshort distances apart hooks or hooked lugs lc, 7c, under which there islitted to the yard a slide Z, of wood which may be made in one two orvmore lengths and which is hollowed out on itsinner side for thereception of the other side of the boltrope y', space being left betweenthe cleat Z and slide Z for the thickness of the cloth of which the sailis composed. To attach the sail to the yard the slide Z is removed andthe bolt-rope j brought against the hollow face of the fixed cleat c'and close to the top 'of the yard, and the slide Zis then insertedendwise under hooks or lugs Za, lc, and by that means the bolt-ropebeing coniined in the cavities of the cleat and slide, the foot of thesail is secured. In the ycleat z', there are secured eyebolts m, m, forthe reception of a horizontal iron rod n, n, and in the hooks or lugsIn, 7c, there are eyes for the recept-ion of a similar rod. In reeng thsail/the reef points are secured to these ro s.

The fourth part of my invention consists in the attachment of the footropes to a yard by means of rigid hangers of wrought iron or othermetal, so applied as to keep the said ropes well out from the saidoutside of the shrouds which are connected to the mast below the saidyard, thereby enabling the said ropes to be continuedpast the mast allalong both sides of the yard and on opposite sides of the mast, andaffording much greater facility for the passage of the crew along theyard. This part of the invention is illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, inwhich p, p, are the rigid hangers, secured to the yard and having attheir lower ends eyes through which the foot rope g, is rove. The endsof the said rope, are secured to eyebolts at the end of the yard arms.

The th part of my invention consists inVV the application to the mast oftraveling back-stays and head-stays. I apply the yards in such manner asVto work between the standing rigging on one side and that on theopposite side of their respectivev masts. This is illustrated in Fig. 3.In such arrangement of the yards the distance which the yard is capableof swinging in either direction from a position directly fore and aft,is limited by the backsstay on one side and the head-stay y, on theopposite side of the mast, and in order to enable the lower ends of the,said stays to be Acarried far enough forward and att to operateeiectively on the mast and yet to prevent them from interfering with therange of the yard I arrange the lower ends of the said stays to the hullof the vessel within the bulwarks,

Yso

as shown in Fig. 3 in dotted outline, attach- Y ing to the said ends,metal slides fw, fw, fitted to the said curved ways, the curvature ofwhich is in the form of arcs concentric with the points of attachment ofthe upper ends of the stays. moving back the head-stay y, on one sideand moving forward the back'- stay on the opposite side, leaving theother head-stay in its forward and the other backstay in its backwardposition, the yards are permitted to swing as far as desirable 'ineither direction. The upper ends of the stays so applied shouldbeconnectedwith a ring Z, which is fitted to turn aroimd the mast on ashoulder Z', provided thereonfor its support. l Y

The sixth part of my invention consists in strengthening the mast by theapplication to it of revolving stays and outriggers. ,This isillustrated in Fig. 3, and in Fig. 9, which is a horizontal section ofthe mast just abovethe outriggers. N, N, are the outriggers, two innumber, attached bylinks or eye-bolts 30, 30, to opposite sides ofV themast just above the top-sail yardB, and 29, 29 are the stays secured attheir upper ends to the ringr Z, before mentioned, rove through eyes Vinthe outriggers and secured to the mast some distance below. Theoutriggers are connected together by an iron link or strap 31, whichpasses under the foot of the topgallant sail, such strap keeping themalways at the same distance apart. One of the outriggers always liesclose to the back or windwarcl side of the sail and the other projectsin a forward direction from the leeward side thereof, and when the yardsand sails swing around in tacking, the side of the sails which has beento leeward comes over to windward, as is the case with my mode ofapplying the yards; the outriggers are also shifted either by the actionof the sail or by the action of the wind, to bring the other one againstthe side of the sail which is then the back or to Windward.

I do not claim broadly the tting of yards over and around their masts,but,

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

l. The construction of the yards to fit around the mast, with a movablecheek-piece b, on one or both sides, substantially as and for thepurpose herein specified.

2. So applying the yards which fit around the mast, that they also slideup and down thereon, substantially as herein specied.

3. Providing the yards with jack stays constructed as herein specified.

4. The attachment of the foot ropes to the yards, by means of rigidhangers p, p, so applied as to keep the said ropes outside of, and outof contact with the shrouds, substantially as herein specified.

5. The traveling back and head-stays m, y, applied and operating incombination with yards fitted over and around the mast, substantially asand for the purpose herein set forth.

6. The combination of the revolving stays 29, 29, and out-riggers N, N,applied to the mast, and in relation to the yards fitted around themast, substantially as and for the purpose herein speciied.

BARTON RICKETSON.

Witnesses:

JAMES LAIRD, RICHARDSON GAWLEY,

